focusing on a precious object rather than a word. She had come with the deputy headmaster, Matt Lillie, to investigate how meditation could be used in their school. “We have 500 students of 40 or 50
nationalities and we are on a journey to develop the Christian character of the school. We want to introduce meditation and make it inclusive,” said Mr Lillie. Echoing similar concerns was Dominic
Dring, chaplain of Cardinal Newman Catholic comprehensive in Hove, Sussex, who sees meditation as potentially a “key resource” for his 2,200-strong school. “We desperately need to enrich the prayerfulness of our school and we need something universal that non-Christian teachers will be happy to lead.” The witness from Townsville has sparked
a pilot programme in Sydney’s Catholic schools and Dr Day is confident it will catch on in the UK where she detected a “hunger and eagerness” during her December visit. She explained that meditation worked as well for teenagers as for young children. At Townsville’s St Ignatius Park, the teenage boys have started their own meditation group with the slogan “Real Men Meditate”. A short film quoted one of the students: “Meditation is time to escape,” he said. “It’s a process. You are not doing nothing, you are doing something while doing nothing, if that makes sense.” Dr Day said she has seen a “flourishing” in the teachers’ spiritual lives.
psychiatrist seconded to the Department of Health, who shared his findings on the effect on concentration and stress and anger management in some of the Australian schools. He found 57 per cent of the students and teachers who responded described it as “relaxing”, 61 per cent “calming” and nearly half reported “improved concentration”. He has not attempted to measure the spiritual benefits of specifically Christian meditation. Charles and Patricia Posnett of Meditatio
T
are coordinating the outreach for children’s meditation in the UK and say there are “little pockets” where teachers are leading meditation but nothing coordinated. I gave Charles Posnett the challenge of teaching it to my extremely active and boisterous four-year-old son. We sat on the floor in the Meditatio Centre in Kensington, west London. Caspar tried to sit still but our quiet was interspersed with: “How much longer?” and a giggle, and “Why have you still got your eyes closed?” and a nudge. The three minutes ended with him spinning on his bottom chiming: “I’m not old enough.” But he has, intriguingly, memorised the mantra “Maranatha”.
Victoria Combe is a freelance journalist. Enquiries about meditation and meditation for children should be directed to Briji Waterfield +44 (0) 20 7602 8098; email
meditatio@wccm.org
5 February 2011 | TABLET Education | S5
he impact of meditation on mental health is being researched by Dr Jonathan Campion, a consultant
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